Latrabjarg One of the main attractions in the area is the famous
bird-cliff Latrabjarg which marks the western-most part of
Europe (which seems not to be true. According to Gunnar
Steinholtz this point is in fact the small cliff Ilhas e ilhéu,
just west o the island Flores in the Azores). Latrabjarg hosts
millions of birds and is vital for their survival as it hosts up
to 40% of the world population for some species e.g. the
Razorbill. It is Europe's largest bird cliff. Guillemots and
other cliff birds number either in tens of thousands, hundreds
of thousands or in the millions.

Latrabjarg is famous for how close you can get to watch e.g. the
puffins, very beautiful popular birds to watch. Iceland is the
world centre for the Atlantic Puffin population, where many
millions breed. In early May most birds start to nest in
Latrabjarg and the main breeding period is from May to July.

Traditionally, around May 20th, a few brave locals rappel down
the dangerous cliff face, to pick a small fraction of the
millions of newly laid and delicious all-natural seabird eggs.

Some History
In a stormy and cold weather just before Christmas in 1947 the
British trawler Dhoon stranded under Latrabjarg 70m from the
shore at “Geldingaskoradalur” where the cliff is 200 meters
straight down do the sea. Rescue mission would seem impossible
for anyone. However 12 brave local farmers decided to rappel
down the icy cliff down to “Flauganef” which stands out and is
about 80 meters high. From Flauganef 4 men continued all the way
down and managed to carry the heavy rescue gear about 1 Km over
icy rocks in the ice cold and stormy weather. There they managed
to shoot a rescue line to the trawler and rescued on shore all
surviving 12 crew members. All crew members, some of which
hardly could move due to cooling of their body temperature where
eventually rescued to safety by rope up the mostly vertical 200
meters high cliff. The rescue team was later specially honoured
by the Queen of England for their outstanding and successful but
highly risky rescue mission.